Annie's Annuals for hundreds of vegetable starts for home, community gardens and urban farms in Richmond, CA. 2014

Nutiva partners with Self-Sustaining Communities to provide for organic gardens in the backyards of transitional homes of Bary Dugar for the formerly incarcerated and the homeless in Richmond, CA. July, 2014.

Tom Burchell of Burchell Nursery does it again by making a donation of 320 pomegranate trees, olive trees and blueberry bushes specifically for the North Richmond Green Festival. Burchell Nursery (October, 2013)

Trees Donated

Welcome

The Self directs the functioning of the whole psyche in an integrated way. According to Carl Jung, conscious and unconscious are not necessarily in opposition to one another, but complement one another to form a totality, which is the Self.(Excerpt from Personality and Personal Growth 6th ed. Frager & Fadiman, 2005)

Sustaining the Earth

Eric Greanleaf, PhD interviews Linda Schneider, Founder and Director of Self-Sustaining Communities and Kevin L. Hampton, Richmond Community Developer about their work. The two have collaborated to bring the concept of Sustainable Living to Richmond, CA building community gardens and teaching sustainable skills.

A NEW DONATION of fruit-bearing trees arrived in Richmond on Friday, delivered by grower Tom Burchell, of Burchell Nursery. Burchell and his crew took 500 trees -- a mix of peach, cherry, nectarine, apricot and plum -- to Opportunity West and another 500 that he and his workers passed out at the Center for Human Development in the Shields-Reid Center in North Richmond.

Sweet deal for West County as nursery donates stone fruit trees

A new delivery of 620 fruit trees, donated by the Dave Wilson Nursery, was brought to West Contra Costa on Thursday for distribution at the Nevin Community Center in Richmond and the Shields-Reid Community Center on Kelsey in North Richmond.

A local group took another step in its effort to help needy communities provide for themselves.

The El Cerrito-based group Self-Sustaining Communities received a new donation of food-bearing trees Nov. 19 and delivered them to two impoverished West County neighborhoods.

More than 500 olive trees and 500 culinary bay trees (not the native California bays we're familiar with) from McEvoy Ranch in Petaluma, along with 75 geraniums, were the latest contribution negotiated by the group.

This past Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010, Self-Sustaining Communities with the assistance of beekeeper, Simone Dippone and local residents came together to build three hives in the style of French beekeeper, Warre. This fun and educational workshop not only provided beehives, but fun interaction between friends and participants while learning fundamental skills for environmental and social sustainability.

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Our Commitment

Our work/mission is to assist in creating a systemic change in the SF East Bay of Northern California which meets environmental, social, and sustainability needs by addressing those areas upon which survival is dependent, specifically food, energy, transportation, shelter and social inclusion. We focus on low-income, high crime areas, but are not necessarily limited thereto. We approach these areas as part of an integrated larger area where coming together to make a systemic change can effect greater well-being for all members of the community.

Given the collapse and dysfunction of the current economic situation, the unemployment, environmental issues and crime, creating a new model is an opportunity we have at hand, by utilizing grassroot efforts, community building and social technology, among others.